Some More Helpful Tips

I want to share with you my two favorite blogs as of lately.  One of the girls got married recently and she shares some of her tips for the big day. Her blog is very uplifting and enjoyable. She shares yummy healthy recipes, fitness tips, fashion, and much more. Who doesn't love all of that? She is all about  being healthy and happy from within and I totally agree.  It is always uplifting to read a blog and feel inspired and motivated afterwards.  So check out beingisbeautiful and enjoy! You will love all the health tips.

When I look back to the time when I was planning my wedding it is full of great memories and I always just want to rewind to that time because it was so fun and exciting. I just want to emphasize again how important it is to relax and enjoy that time because it only happens once.  It is such a special time and you are getting ready to have your whole life change.  I once read some advice to take ten minutes each day to meditate and I think it is so important.  Next time you are feeling stressed just go sit in a quit place, lay down, close your eyes, and only think positive thoughts. Often times girls are so hard on themselves and that is no good. This should be a time to think of all the things you love about yourself. I promise that when you feel happy and love yourself you will be able to enjoy life more and others will enjoy you more.  No one wants to deal with a cranky pants.  Another favorite way of mine to relax is using lavender oil. My mom gave me some a few months ago and whenever I am feeling stressed I just breathe some in and but some on my forehead and neck and just try to relax.  Recently on beingisbeautiful she shared how she enjoys taking relaxing baths with epsom salt.  I too do this and if you haven't tried it I would highly recommend it.  Take some time for you to relax and you will feel better and be able to enjoy this exciting time.  I am a big believer that when you are exercising, eating healthy, thinking positively, and taking some "you" time you will feel so much happier about yourself and life.  It is so easy to get caught up in things and stressed out and then time flies by and you regret having a bad attitude. That is such a waste of time and when planning a wedding, no regrets are allowed. It is the happiest time and you need to enjoy every moment.  Everything works out and the wedding day flies by unfortunately. My husband and I love looking at our wedding photos and video and love to relive that day because it truly was the best day of our lives. There is not a thing I would have changed about our wedding.  It is filled with so many precious memories and I am so glad that everyone told me all this advice beforehand. I made sure to just take it all in and enjoy every minute of that special day!!! Woo woo

Ok so another favorite blog of mine is So Delushious and it is written by Chrissy Teigen.  She is a model that is full of personality.  She is a food lover but has tried to keep her diet delicious and healthy. She shares her tips to stay lean but still enjoy delicious food. She knows how miserable it is to deprive yourself so she has made it her mission to share meals that satisfy our cravings.  Once again it is no fun to feel starving, deprived, and cranky.  It is so important to develop a healthy lifestyle that satisfies your needs.  Chrissy is also planning a wedding and she looks amazing so I am willing to try any tips she gives. Take a look at her blog and I can guarantee she will make you laugh.  She is a stunning model and when you read her blog you fell like she is so relatable and she totally understands the struggles girls go through. She is trying to find balance in her diet and refuses to be miserable.  This is so important because happiness comes from within and you have to be able to enjoy your healthy lifestyle. Here are some more lovely wedding idea pictures from Pinterest!

                                                                                       xoxo- Paige

   

Wedding Inspo

 Pinterest is a great and organized way to get awesome ideas for what you want your wedding to look like and what you want to look like.  I love a girl named Julia's Pinterest because she has so many beautiful pictures from hair and makeup ideas, wedding dresses, flowers, and decorations. So please go check it out if you are looking for some inspiration while planning your own wedding!  Here are some of my favorite ideas for the big day.

So first is makeup and these are some of my favorite ideas....
I love when a bride still looks like herself...so natural but also glamorous since it is such an exciting occasion.  I think it is important to do something that is timeless.  I personally love a dewy face with some contouring with bronzer and a highlighter. I think a subtle smokey eye with some brown colors always looks nice, and you can never go wrong with a pretty pink lip.  Another look that has been popular lately is a red lip to give it a little more of a dramatic look.  The inspiration for my wedding came from Kim Kardashians wedding makeup.  Other celebrities who always have beautiful makeup are Jennifer Lopez, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Alba. I would recommend picking a few of your favorite looks and taking them when you meet with your makeup artist so they can see what your vision is.  I would also recommend doing a trial run before the big day so you can make sure you are pleased with the outcome.

Next lets talk hair....
You can do up, down, half up, curled, straight, braid, or bun.  There are so many options and I think it is important to do what you are comfortable with and what looks most like you.  Also I think this decision depends a lot on what style of dress you choose so it is important to think of that. I took bridal pictures before my wedding day and on that day I wore my hair all down with loose curls.  I liked it but when I saw the pictures I decided that was too casual for me and I did not like the way it looked with my veil.  So I did another trial run with the hair dresser and I tried loosely pulling the sides back and doing a little knot in the back with curls coming down.  This worked much better for me and I felt like it was a little more dressy.  I took several pictures into the salon to show the style of curls I wanted and the style I wanted.  This is where Pinterest is so helpful because it shows you so many ideas in an organized way and if you like it you simply just pin it.  Here are some of my favorite wedding hair styles.

And finally the most exciting part of planning a wedding is finding your wedding dress! There are so many beautiful options out there and if I have any advice it would be to TRY ON A LOT! Everyone always told me that you think you know what you want until you try it on.  I thought I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted and I knew I just did not want any lace.  Well... in the end my whole dress was lace.  It was so weird because all along I kept saying I did not want that and when it came down to it that is what I picked.  I am very indecisive so this was a very difficult decision.  Me and my mom went to the boutique several times and I would try on and try to narrow it down to a few and then I thought I would go home and if I kept thinking of one then that was probably it.  Well that was not happening and I was getting down to the wire and needed to make a decision.  One afternoon when I was trying on different dresses the store owner showed me a brand new dress they had just gotten in and it was close to my size so I tried it on and I could tell that I really liked it and felt comfortable in it.  I left that afternoon and had it narrowed down to two dresses and my mom said I had two hours to decide hahaha so I chose a beautiful lace Monique Lhuillier dress and that was that. They say the rule is once you pick your dress you have to stop looking and I agree; there are too many beautiful options and it can get overwhelming. I would highly recommend ordering your dress right away so you have plenty of time to alter it so it fits you just right.  I loved the whole experience of going in for alterations and talking all things wedding.  It was such a fun environment and some days I wished I worked there and got to help girls find their dream wedding dress.  Everyone is so happy and excited and they just want you to look and feel your very best!

I love the process of planning a wedding and wish I could do it all over again.  Hopefully some of this was helpful or got you excited to get planning. But honestly everyone I met with loved the Pinterest idea because I could easily show them tons of pictures so they knew just what I had in mind!

Prepping for the Big Day

Ok so I am going to share with you an awesome blog about health and fitness.  Brooke Burke has a website called ModernMom and a section on it called Oh My Bod or OMB.  I look at this blog often because her and a group of friends are always putting up healthy recipes and sharing their stories and tips to get fit.  Brooke Burke also has a section with YouTube videos where she teaches you exercises you can do at home to tone and tighten.  Brooke will often write blog posts that share her tips to get ready for special events and she always looks fabulous.  One of my favorite recipes she put up is her AM shake.  She drinks this just about every morning and says it gives her the nutrition and energy she needs to make it through the morning.  Brooke is all about taking some "you" time for at least an hour a day to be physically active.  She also has a few workout DVDs out and I have tried a couple and really enjoy them. So take a look and enjoy!

 

            

Another great blog that I check out often is The Skinny Confidential.  Lauryn always has great posts about healthy, quick, and easy recipes.  She has guest bloggers share their fitness and beauty tips and here are a couple of those guest posts you may be interested in as you prepare for your wedding.  

So first off is a post from Weslie about Custom Airbrushing.  Weslie shares her professional tips to make sure you avoid any mishaps.  I personally would recommend this, I think everyone looks and feels better with a little color.  I did a few airbrush tans throughout my engagement and I can tell you that these tips really do make a difference.  It is always important to make sure you find someone that has a good color tanning solution so you look natural.  Also it is important to shower, shave, and scrub your body before getting your tan.  My airbrusher told me that it is better not to put lotion on before your tan, but wait until the next morning after your tan then shower and make sure you moisturize a lot!

There is also a post about Eyelash Extensions. I have had eyelash extensions for a couple of years and I will tell you that I love them. Weslie is also a professional at eyelash extensions and shares some good information if you are considering them! I would recommend these for a wedding because they make your eyes pop but still look very natural.  They were also great for the honeymoon because I did not have to worry about wearing makeup down to the beach. 

  

Here is a pin on Pinterest I saw after my wedding but I think it could have been helpful to try this out before my wedding.  It is from Women’s Health Magazine and gives diet tips for seven days leading up to a big event to help you feel your best.

                              

I found all of these blogs and pins really helpful and they are all about being healthy and feeling your best, nothing too extreme.  I think it is important to feel your best on your special day but to enjoy the process.  With these tips it can be an enjoyable process instead of depriving yourself.  So hope you enjoy these and let me know if you try any of them out.

Paige

Quick and Easy Beauty Tips

I just came across this blog post on one of my favorite blogs Love Chugs! Weslie shares some simple and cost friendly tips to get beautiful and glowing skin, healthy hair, and white teeth!!! Who would not want that for their wedding day and many of these items you may already have in your kitchen.  I think it is worth a try and I will let you know how it works for me!

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

Hi! My name is Paige Petersen Bledsoe.  I just got married to my best friend Andrew a couple months ago and it has been a blast! However... I really miss all the wedding planning.  I thought I would be so relieved when it was all over but I enjoyed the planning so much and wish I could do it on a daily basis. I loved my wedding and it was like my dream come true. I never wanted that beautiful day to end and here is a secret... after Andrew and I left our reception we had the driver drive us around the block until the guests had left and then we went back to our reception and sat there and took it all in. We were on cloud nine for days and in short I will just say I love love love weddings!!!
When I first got engaged I began making a detailed list of everything I needed to do.  The list was very overwhelming and I had no idea where to begin.  Everyone I talked to about the wedding gave me similar advice which was, "Make sure you enjoy this time!" I agree with this advice 100%.  This is where the handy dandy Pinterest came into play! I don't know about you but I could sit and look at beautiful pictures on Pinterest for hours.  I will be honest, many of the details of our wedding I took from beautiful ideas on Pinterest.  It also makes it so easy and convenient to organize your ideas.  I made a board for everything from flowers to make-up to wedding dresses and much more.  I found other people's wedding pins that I loved and then it led me to their blogs and I was so inspired by all their creative and beautiful ideas.  These Pinterest boards came in really handy when I met with the florist, wedding planner, and the baker.  I would show them pictures of what I was thinking and then they would help me expand on those ideas.
There were so many things that I wanted exactly right for my wedding so I made a list from head to toe and here it is... 1.  Hair (style, color, etc.) 2.  Skin (I ended up doing an airbrush tan and really liked it.  I also wanted clear and glowing skin for that day (hopeful thinking) but once again Pinterest has so many beauty tips and tricks as well). 3.  Makeup (I found a handful of pictures on Pinterest of people's makeup I loved and then showed them to the makeup artist when we did a trial run so I could find what worked best for me).  4.  Body (I wanted to look and feel my best for my wedding so I turned to Pinterest and some fitness blogs to find some guidance of some healthy reciepes and workouts that would help me feel good on the big day).  5.  Nails.
I guess that is the vain side of things but I really wanted to feel beautiful on my wedding day and it was fun to learn so much from reading articles and blogs and on these areas and I am excited to share them with you! Another list was the wedding details and that list was much longer but once again so fun picking everything out! 1. The ring (so exciting and so many pretty options, I showed Andrew a handful of pictures I found of gorgeous rings on Pinterest and he took ideas from a few and had a very special one made!) 2.  The dress ( I would recommend getting on this task ASAP because many can take months to get in once ordered and if you have to make a lot of alterations you want to make sure you have plenty of time. I had planned on getting one made and made a folder of ideas and pictures of dresses I loved. However, one day I went into Bridal Couture in Las Vegas and began trying on dresses and fell in love with one immediately! I chose a beautiful lace dress and the funny thing is I always said I did not want a lace dress and there was not one lace dress in my folder of ideas, but I guess you never know until try it on.) 3.  The shoes (I always had an idea of what I wanted and I wanted something that I could wear again after the wedding day.) 4.  The jewelry (Ahhh so many gorgeous options and once you pick your dress it will make this choice much easier).  5.  The veil ( It seems like it has become popular lately to not wear a veil.  You can do jewels in your hair or flowers etc. but I chose an extremely long veil that I fell in love with right when I tried it on!)
Now I may seem like I only focused on myself but no no I also loved helping Andrew and our family members pick out their outfits as well! You have to think about the handsome grooms outfit, the lovely mothers, handsome fathers, and the wedding party.  I spent hours searching for bridesmaid dresses and for me I felt like the more simple the better so I went with all black dresses.  The colors of my wedding were black and ivory and I added in pops of color in the flowers.
I do not know much about flowers but thankfully those who post pictures of them on Pinterest usually label them and that was very helpful when picking my flowers.
As you can see these are just some of the many details that go into wedding prepping and planning and I want this blog to help others planning a wedding know how to simplify and enjoy the process. My best advice would also be to just enjoy every moment of it! I would suggest cuddling in a cozy blanket and begin searching Pinterest and blogs for inspiration! I am looking forward to sharing some of my favorite images, pins, articles, and blogs that helped me oh so much!!! So for now I will leave you with some beautiful images that will hopefully get you excited for what is to come! I want to break down the details and help you enjoy this wedding planning process!